When gentrification pisses off an entire neighborhood

Yuppie scum at its finest and most obnoxious, and a few questions:

1. How many of those condo units are affordable?

2. Are the loud booms from old Ironsides ruining people's whoopie making/yoga/debating sessions?

3. If you're here because it's an attractive area, why in blazes do you want to change it without a single shred of consideration for your neighbors, who were here much longer than you've been?

The Fort Hood attacks - who's right, and who's wrong?

I agree with what Hub Blog says here:

Here's a challenge to conservatives:  What specifically would [the mainstream media] do to prevent these types of attacks in the future?  It's put up or shut up time.

On the other hand, I have always been a staunch opponent of political correctness.  You can't simply excuse or wish away violence of any kind, including those attacks that result in death.  I don't agree it's a handmaiden to terror, but more like a way to put rose-colored glasses on unpleasant thoughts or situations.  And sometimes, the rose doesn't hide the horror well enough.

Whipping up emotions is easy.  Finding solutions that may not please the easily offended won't be.

The lump sum option in the Lottery's instant tickets...not a great idea

The Lottery, beginning with this summer's games, are now offering the choice between taking your winnings in installments or being paid out in a lump sum.

For example, if you win $1 million, you can take either 20 payments per year of $50,000 each, or one payment of $650,000.

First, the installments:

• With taxes, at 25% federal and 5% state, you will receive a check for $35,000 per year.  
• Over 20 years, you will receive a total of $700,000.  
• Depending on your tax bracket, you will likely stay within or go up perhaps one or two tax brackets.  For instance, if you're in the 15% tax bracket, you will stay there or increase to either the 25% or 28% tax bracket.

Now, with the lump-sum:

• With taxes, at 25% federal and 5% state, you will receive a one-time check for $455,000.  
• The $650,000 represents 13 annuity checks at $50,000 apiece, meaning you will lose 7 annuity checks at $350,000 for this convenience.  
• Compared with the annuity of 20 checks, the loss will be $245,000 over the period of 20 years ($700,000 - $455,000), or about $12,250 a year.
• Accepting the $650,000 will also put you into the 35% tax bracket for that year, meaning you will likely pay much more in taxes.  For instance, if you're in the 15% tax bracket, you will be in the 35% tax bracket that year - and all taxes are progressive.

The higher the prize, the more you stand to lose.  If you won $10 million, the amounts I mentioned above go up by a factor of 10 - meaning you lose $3.5 million if you take the lump sum and receiving a check for $4,550,000.  On the other hand, taking the 20 checks at $350,000 each means you get $7,000,000.

So your best bet?  Having a steady, albeit, lower winnings check for 20 years is much better than instant gratification and losing a lot more money. 

It's partially correct that the Lottery is a math tax on the stupid - because it takes a stupid person to utter that phrase.